U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 (Hayakawa et al.) discloses a light-sensitive material comprising a support and a light-sensitive layer which contains silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance. An image-forming method using the light-sensitive material comprises: imagewise exposing to light the material to form a latent image of silver halide; and heating the material to form a polymer image within the area where the latent image has been formed.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 06/854,640, which was continued as Ser. No. 07/113,346, which was further continued as Ser. No. 07/294,977, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,040, discloses another image forming method in which a polymer image is formed within the area where a latent image has not been formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,011 (Yamamoto et al.) discloses a light-sensitive material containing light-sensitive microcapsules. Silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance are contained in the microcapsules which are dispersed in the light-sensitive layer. An image-forming method using the light-sensitive microcapsules comprises: imagewise exposing to light the light-sensitive material; heating the material; and pressing the material on an image receiving material to transfer the color image forming substance with the unpolymerized polymerizable compound. Thus a color image is formed on the image receiving material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,064 (Nakamura), U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,589 (Takahashi) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,353 (Takeda) discloses a light-sensitive material wherein a base precursor is contained in the light-sensitive microcapsules. The base precursor has a function of releasing a base at a heat development process. The base precursor is usually decomposed by heat to release the base. The released base accelerates a development reaction.